here are more than 20 major cities in America whose mayors endorse “Sanctuary City” policies, allowing millions of illegal aliens to freely live, work, drive, and for some, terrorize, rape, murder and run with gangs. The failures of local elected officials to enforce our federal immigration laws have a direct impact on these communities around the country.

“Progressive” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom claims that the sanctuary city movement was adopted “to create a climate where residents, regardless of immigration status, can feel free to call the police or fire department, or take a sick child to the hospital, without fear of deportation.”

However, Newsom is the same mayor who vehemently said, “I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way, shape or form with these [federal immigration] raids. We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it.”

Protecting the Criminals
In June, Edwin Ramos, a 21-year-old illegal alien gang member with multiple felony busts under his belt, murdered Anthony Bologna, 49, and his sons, Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16. Ramos executed them using an AK-47 after their car blocked his in an intersection. Ramos has quite a crime history, having attempted to rob a pregnant woman and he savagely attacked a bus passenger. As a hardcore member of the MS-13 street gang, Ramos benefited from San Francisco’s policy of shielding illegal-immigrant criminals who claim to be juveniles—even though there is no way of independently determining the actual age of the criminals. But since Ramos told authorities he was 17 years old at the time, he was protected from deportation.

On Aug. 8, 2008, Mayor Newsom penned a very defensive response to the triple murder in the San Francisco Chronicle: “First, the lack of coordination between local and federal law enforcement should certainly cause us to challenge criminal justice authorities, and us, to enforce our laws more vigorously.”

How convenient of Newsom to change his tune mid-song from first refusing to allow his department heads to cooperate with the federal immigration officials, to then blaming the “lack of coordination between local and federal law officials” for Ramos’ crime spree. If this is Newsom’s “progressive” behavior, I am curious about his “regressive” behavior.

Safety or Sanctuary
Because of the sanctuary city ordinance, San Francisco recently made headlines after it was discovered that the city was protecting illegal immigrant drug dealers and using taxpayers’ funds to help them escape prosecution. The San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department was shipping underage crack dealers to group homes in other California cities in an effort to shield them from the feds under the city’s 1989 “City of Refuge” ordinance, which prohibits city employees from informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of illegal immigrants. Last year, Mayor Newsom ordered his city’s departments to develop training on the ordinance, and then he began a public awareness campaign to promote the city’s sanctuary policy to undocumented residents. Newsom has since reversed this policy, but only after the Bologna family was slaughtered.

So who exactly is benefiting from sanctuary cities? Legal citizens are terrorized, beaten up, mugged, murdered and robbed by illegal aliens and illegal alien gang members. Yet ironically, it is legal citizens who pay for all of the government benefits and services illegal aliens receive.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, a confidential California Department of Justice study from the mid-90s showed then that at least 60 percent of the members of LA’s most violent gangs, with membership in the tens of thousands, were illegal aliens. Of all outstanding murder warrants in Los Angeles, 95 percent are for illegal aliens. The FBI reports 24.9 percent of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally. More than 50 percent of all gang members in Los Angeles are illegal aliens from south of the border and 47 percent of all cited or stopped drivers in California have no license, registration or insurance. Of that 47 percent, 97 percent are illegal aliens.

The Government Accountability Office (the investigative arm of Congress) reported that illegal aliens made up 29 percent of the state and federal prison population in 2005, totaling 630,000 and costing federal taxpayers $1.6 billion annually.

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo sent a letter in July to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking him to investigate the San Francisco sanctuary city policy that led to the triple homicide.

“Because San Francisco’s political leaders have already demonstrated their willingness to act in flagrant violation of federal law, I do not believe that local judicial institutions can be trusted to fairly try the case or mete out an appropriate punishment,” Tancredo wrote.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, said city officials were wrong to shield undocumented, juvenile felons from federal immigration authorities.

“The sanctuary program was never intended to shield felons,” Ballard told the Mercury News. “The policy was inappropriate.”

However, Newsom “still supports the worthwhile aims of denying the federal government assistance in deporting otherwise law-abiding undocumented residents,” Ballard added.

The misleading term “Sanctuary City,” is meant to sound compassionate, kind and safe. But there is nothing safe or kind about sanctuary cities for legal, taxpaying citizens. Sanctuary cities are nothing more than safe havens for illegal aliens and their violent gangs, with legal citizens as unsuspecting hostages in their hometowns.

How’s that for progressive?